Goats from Kennebec Cheesery - The Girls Who Give Me My Goat Cheese!
Garlic scapes hit the farmers markets last year and again this year. They are causing quite an uproar! I've grown garlic for years and until last year didn't know I could eat those funny, spiral, soon to flower tops. So glad local farmers have introduced us to this fleeting delicacy.
Glamorous Garlic Scapes
If you would like to read more about garlic scapes visit an older post here from July 1 2009 that ends with quite a bit about garlic scapes; you'll need to scroll down in that post to get to the garlic scape photo and information. Growing, harvesting, cooking information, plus some neat websites devoted to the lovely scape can be found there. So I won't repeat that here. You can access that post easily here: http://mainegarden2009.blogspot.com/2009/07/peas-and-pests.html or you can go over there to the right and access that post as well as many others through the archive. Just click on the 2009 arrow and then the July 09 arrow. It'll bring you to all the posts of that month. You'll find the scape post there. What I will do here is share with you some new pesto experimentation I've had success with this year. It includes quite a bit about raw milk and goats milk.
Here's a twist on garlic scape pesto, the addition of local, raw milk, goat cheese. Instead of using Parmesan cheese I now use local, raw milk, goat cheese. Thanks to Lisa, a local teacher and fellow gardener, I have tried and converted to the benefits of raw milk. Let me just say that I didn't jump on this band wagon without lots of thought and research. As a previous science teacher I don't dump science advancements such as pasteurization lightly. And in fact I'm sure it is still quite necessary at times and in certain places. But through research I have come to the conclusion or should I say that I have formed a hypothesis that the reason for pasteurization is in large part due to our inhumane and unhealthy treatment of the animals we get milk from. For quite some time I've struggled with eating dairy. Not because of health reasons but because I couldn't get by the fact that the animals on the large agrifarms where the country gets a lot of our dairy products from are so poorly treated. Then came Barrels Community Market in Waterville, http://www.barrelsmarket.com/cms/. A gift from heaven! They have local milk and other local dairy products. Dairy products that come from grass fed, free range, and humanely raised cattle and goats. This new freedom to purchase dairy has led me to experiment with dairy products. After converting to raw cow milk we began to try raw goat yogurt. (Makes me think of the George Carlin skit on yogurt ever time I say or write that word!)
The local, raw milk, goat cheese I use is from a wonderful small and local farm that is also a cheesery. They make the BEST yogurt (there's that George Carlin thought again!) and goat cheese. Kennebec Cheesery is in Sidney Maine and is run by this wonderful couple. Turns out my son went to school with their boys. Here's their website: http://www.kennebeccheesery.com/ Their products are delious! You can purchase them at several farmers' markets including the Waterville, Skowhegan, and Augusta's Mill Park farmers' markets. You can also purchase them at Barrels Market.
When I buy their goat cheese I cut it up into chunks and put it in a glass canning jar along with some minced herbs of choice and a few peppercorns. Then I fill the jar with extra virgin olive oil so that the herbs and cheese are completely covered with oil. The olive oil preserves it. I do not include garlic due to the fact that I have found so much information on raw garlic preservation in oil and botulism. I don't want you to play with that! Once the oil is together I refrigerate it. It will last quite a while. The first time I did this I was quite surprised by the fact that the oil congealed; solidified. I threw the whole thing out. Silly me! Now I realize, after talking with David from Barrels, that of course the oil solidified in the refrig. It does that. So to use this oil preserved cheese you just sit the jar on the counter for a little while and it will thaw. Please use glass to store your cheese in oil (and all your food). Plastic leaches harmful chemicals into the food that is stored in it. Especially damaging is to microwave food in plastic. Take the food out of the plastic container and put in a bowl; cover with wax paper, not plastic wrap. Plastic may be good for things like lightweight and unbreakable eye glasses but in my opinion it has no place in our food storage system. The health risks outweigh the benefits.
**Back to the new pesto recipe:
- Mince 10 garlic scapes - add to food processor
- Add a chunck of goat cheese (about 1/4 cup worth) and pour some of the herb oil in (again about 1/4 cups worth)
- Add a handful of herbs of choice. I added cilantro since it was abundant at the same time as the scapes and since I also LOVE cilantro.
- Add a handful of pumpkin seeds or other nuts or seeds such as pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, etc. (This is another area to experiment with...the type of nuts/seeds to add to pesto)
- Whirl and serve over hot pasta, cook over fish (sustainably harvested) or meat (local meat of course), in with scrambled eggs or omelets, over steamed veggies....let your use and imagination run wild!
**Swiss Chard and spinach have been providing greens for a while now. Just when you need a twist to how to cook and serve them in comes garlic scapes. When I serve greens I usually keep it simple. Steamed greens with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Try this if you like greens -Swiss Chard and garlic scapes:
- Saute swiss chard in water. You can even add some white wine and/or veggie broth.
- Sprinke with low sodium soy sauce
- Add a good spoonful of garlic scape pesto.
**Preserving pesto in the freezer is easy:
- After making the pesto spoon tablespoon fulls into an ice cube tray. Freeze until hard; about an hour or two.
- Then pop the pesto cubes into a freezer bag (I know it's plastic :( and you have individual portions for future cooking. I personally can't wait to add it to some fresh Bruchetta once the cherry tomatoes are ripe!
Enjoy your garlic scape pesto and experiment with its ingredients and how you use it! And go ahead, be brave, try local raw milk. Here are a few links to information on the benefits of raw milk. There are so many more, just search the web. http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/raw_milk_health_benefits.html
and another (this one includes discussion on heart health benefits of raw Jersey milk:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/dairy-free-avoid-this-pop_b_558447.html
Happy Gardening and Cooking!
Remember; "Gardening makes the world clean and fresh." AHS
Mary
PS - If you have any extra garden produce share it with your local homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Be sure to call ahead first and ALWAYS be sure it's meretriciously clean, fresh and ready to use. They will appreciate that.
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